The accelerating pace of my beloved sweetheart's career means that my moldering old "files" must move from their metal drawers into cardboard boxes, so that T's growing mass of paperwork can actually be, well, filed. Yesterday a half-ton of decaying old syllabi, xeroxed articles, postcards, weird clippings, instructions for long-dead devices, and various other precious items I refuse to part with made their way into the deep freeze.

Among the flotsam, this entry in a "Super Conquerant" notebook bought on a trip to France and Spain in January of 2000 (a trip that Rory's recent Barcelona entry brought back to memory). I didn't write much about the trip in it -- but I did carry it around on the subway for a while after our return. One entry:

Friday 1/21/2000

Cold as hell day, right after snow. Moderately crowded Manhattan-bound N train. Two Brooklyn whiteguys, maybe around 40. In another age they would have been in the longshoremen's union. Clean shaven, chubby, knit caps. The louder one has dark eyes and a sharpish nose in an otherwise rounded face. Both have that flat variant of the Brooklyn accent that can sound at times like Chicago.

Louder: Train conductors are such assholes. They're all giving you Army time.

Softer: Army time.

L: Yeah, you know, like 'The time is 1725.' Who gives a rats ass about Army time?

S: You were in the service, right?

L: Yeah, but what I'm saying is who gives a rats ass about Army time?

S: You and I should know what that means.

[two stops pass]

S: I was watchin' a movie with that whathisname John Larquette.

L: John Laroquette.

S: I can't get over how doofy that guy looks.

L: Like that Tom Hanks. People love that asshole.

S: [inaudible]

L: Now he's in that Green Mile. [woman's name] wants to see that. Tom Hanks and some other asshole are in prison. Who gives a rats ass?

S: John Laroquette got into the business on that TV show.

L: Right. People love these assholes. I'll tell you that Forrest Gump and that Philadelphia. Bo-ring.

S: Those were two good movies.

L: Well, that Forrest Gump had a good story.

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Around the Horn:

Via Iconomy: Og, son of Fire!

Via madamjujujive via plep at MeFi: Dream Anatomy. (Particularly, this)

At WNP: "SHE'S FAKIN' IT!"